There was an Alfred Hitchcock I was missing when I saw a bunch a while ago. Time to correct that!
Due to random horniness, a woman decides to head out to a bay out nowhere to chase down a man. While they pretend not to flirt, several birds appear on screen, until finally they are too numerous to ignore. All you can do is hunker down and don't wander off by yourself.
As ever, Alfred Hitchcock knows what he is doing, but... this is rather slow, I'm going to admit. This is two hours, you know why you are watching this, and yet there is a lot of build up of characters... which doesn't actually lead anywhere. Knowing various backstories doesn't matter when the last scene is just them in the house waiting for bird attacks, character development doesn't inform them sitting and staring.
As for the bird attacks... inevitably I am reminded of Birdemic, but this is an actual good movie. While people travel via rear projections, birds attack via front projection... but at least they are real birds! No computer graphic with three images cycling here (and no coat hangers either). Although the birds are still pretty effective killers in both movies. And I have to admit, the movie ends with about the same resolution to the situation in both cases... (psst, this is not a positive note).
Tippi Hedren makes her debut in this movie, and you can tell the camera likes her... because she is in soft focus whenever the camera is in close shot. We get other good performances, but no-one I know from other movies.
Yeah, this is good, but what did you expect? The ending is a bit of a let down, but I do like atmospheric build up, and this has that!
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